Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-11-12
Jaokson's Macon Speech.


at Macon, was the orators bid for
seat in the Senate of the United
States Ifit was SO it sped wide of
its mark. By no change, orpossibil
ity, could the author of such speech
secure votes enough in any State of
the South to send him in q repre-
sentative character to Washington
because the speech is representative
of nothing which retains living hold
upon any considerable body of
Southern men.
1t is an echo of 1861, not a refec-
ton of 1887. It's point of delivery,
its tone, it's language, all belong to
the ears of the obsolete. 1t reads
like an excerp from the classics. 1t
bears the clearest evidence of CON-
ing from man who has lived much
apart from the thronged haunts Of
men and away off the highways of
modern thought j; it deals with the
bravenes of the philosopher and the
scholar, not the probabilities Of
the politician or the statesman ; 1T is
prose-poem to the Lost Cause, as
whimsical and fanciful as a conceit
out of the Republic of Plato.
General Jackson is poet. He is
man of the rarest charm of charac-
ter and manners. Incapable Of SIM
ulation, or double dealing, as cour-
ageous as sincere and at once gallant
and generous to fault, he found
himself, at Macon, in company with
his old enemy, Jefferson Davis, and,
yielding to the chivalry of his nature
to close intellectual agreement and
to the sympathies of an occasion,
touching in many ways, he spoke
from heart overlooking with tender
memories and from mind full of
therories, which, through disasters
multiplied, have grown dear to his
age.
As we'll might Mr.. Davis look for
seat in the Senate of the United
States and yet, for useful and good
purposes, Georgia has never sent a
better man than General Jackson.
Such men as he, indeed. are not for
the rough ways of our public life.
They are gentler born. and swathed
in the silken folds of aristocracy,
and bred for gentlemen and schol-
ars, not for demagogues. General
Jackson's view of slavery, is the view
of humane master; his view of
State Sovereignty is the view Of one
who still believes in the doctine OF
secession his view Of Lincoln and
Davis is the view Ola bookish vision
airy. If the issues he conjures out
of the depths of the dim antique
could be submitted for actual dis
cussion in the South, he would find
himself in company with a very few
old ladies, who, in kind Of patrician
squalor, hug their poverty and their
pride, and stray patriarch or two.
lost, like the good Sir Walters Dom.
inie, in library Businesses, and revis-
iting the glimpses of the moon, even
as Mr.. Davis himself, by fits and
starts. But none Others. The tramp
lings of the march of time have made
highway for the present which is
lighted by none of the old torches,
nor marked by any Of the old mile
posts. State sovereignty, as Gen.
Jackson recalls and understands it,
is dead TO all the uses OF this world /,
and those who cling to the wisdom
and virtue Of home rule, and who
seek TO stand out against the central.
izing forces Of the century, know
we'll that the shiboleths OF secession
are but as bats and owls across our
path Of progress.
To preserve somewhat Of she faith
of the fathers, to keep the fame or
manly integrity from dying out in
fstid atmosphere OF greed and pslf
which has risen over she battle field
OF our ruin, our signals must not be
made OF tattered flags, nor their in.
scriptiOns he transcribed from grave
stones /; but true 10 the noble i'm
pulses OF the past in our hearts, we
must ally our energies with, and our
inspirations from, the moving spirit
OF the age we live in; and in the uni
versal belief Of that age. Mr.. Davis,
and all that he stood for, except the
courage and fidelity, which are eal-
bodied in his character, and which
typify the character of the manhood
OF the South, was q failure seees.
sion, slavery she dream ola Southern
Confederacy; and ne man shall see
them more; nay, nor regret them
more.
1t is not for the South to reproach
the North with victory, which was
overwhelming, 1t is not for the
South, having lost, to flaunt the ire
cnNn re- bio tronllins Of thn do - of Il :